by Abby Green
She’d just whispered one word. “Please.”
Cruz De Carrillo cannot forget the searing kiss he shared with his shy maid, Trinity Adams. For the moment the Spanish billionaire walked away, horrified at losing his legendary control, Trinity quickly moved on—to become nanny, guardian and stepmother to his brother’s sons!
Now Cruz must protect his orphaned nephews. When Trinity refuses to leave them, he knows there is one solution—a ring on her finger! It’s the only way Cruz can keep her in his castillo, under his watchful eye, and finish what he started—this time in his bed!
Cruz only had a second of seeing Trinity’s eyes widen with shock before his mouth crashed down onto hers.
For a long second nothing existed except this pure spiking shard of lust, so strong that he had no option but to move his mouth and haul her even closer until he could feel every luscious curve pressed against him.
And it was only in this moment when their mouths were fused and he could feel her heart clamoring against his chest that he could finally recognize the truth: that he’d been aching for this moment since the night he’d kissed her for the first time.
Wedlocked!
Conveniently wedded, passionately bedded!
Whether there’s a debt to be paid, a will to be obeyed or a business to be saved...
She’s got no choice but to say, “I do!”
But these billionaire bridegrooms have got another think coming if they think marriage will be that easy...
Soon their convenient brides become the object of an inconvenient desire!
Find out what happens after the vows in
The Billionaire’s Defiant Acquisition by Sharon Kendrick
One Night to Wedding Vows by Kim Lawrence
Wedded, Bedded, Betrayed by Michelle Smart
Expecting a Royal Scandal by Caitlin Crews
Trapped by Vialli’s Vows by Chantelle Shaw
A Diamond for Del Rio’s Housekeeper by Susan Stephens
Baby of His Revenge by Jennie Lucas
Bound by His Desert Diamond by Andie Brock
Bride by Royal Decree by Caitlin Crews
Look out for more Wedlocked! stories coming soon!
Claimed for the De Carrillo Twins
ABBY GREEN
millsandboon.co.uk
Irish author Abby Green threw in a very glamorous career in film and TV—which really consisted of a lot of standing in the rain outside actors’ trailers—to pursue her love of romance. After she’d bombarded Mills & Boons with manuscripts they kindly accepted one, and an author was born. She lives in Dublin, Ireland, and loves any excuse for distraction. Visit abby-green.com or email [email protected].
Books by Abby Green
Mills and Boons Modern
Awakened by Her Desert Captor
Forgiven but Not Forgotten?
The Legend of De Marco
The Call of the Desert
Secrets of the Oasis
In Christofides’ Keeping
Brides for Billionaires
Married for the Tycoon’s Empire
One Night With Consequences
An Heir to Make a Marriage
An Heir Fit for a King
The Chatsfield
Rival’s Challenge
Delucca’s Marriage Contract
Billionaire Brothers
Fonseca’s Fury
The Bride Fonseca Needs
Blood Brothers
When Falcone’s World Stops Turning
When Christakos Meets His Match
When Da Silva Breaks the Rules
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk
for more titles.
I’d like to thank Heidi Rice, Sharon Kendrick and Iona Grey for all their cheerleading; Kate Meader, who provided counsel over cocktails in the Shelbourne; and Annie West, who always provides serene and insightful advice. And of course my editor, Sheila, who has proved beyond doubt that she believes me capable of anything, apart from perhaps AWAVMOT!
Thank you, all!
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Introduction
Wedlocked!
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
Extract
Copyright
PROLOGUE
CRUZ DE CARRILLO SURVEYED the thronged reception room in his London home, filled with a veritable who’s who of London’s most powerful players and beautiful people, all there to celebrate his return to Europe.
He felt no sense of accomplishment, though, to be riding high on the crest of his stratospheric success in North America, having tripled his eponymous bank’s fortunes in less than a year, because he knew his zealous focus on work had more to do with avoiding this than the burning ambition he’d harboured for years to turn his family bank’s fortune and reputation around.
And it killed him to admit it.
This was standing just feet away from him now—tall and slender, yet with generous curves. Pale skin. Too much pale skin. Exposed in a dress that left far too little to the imagination. Cruz’s mouth compressed with distaste even as his blood ran hot, mocking him for the desire which time hadn’t diminished—much to his intense irritation. It was unwelcome and completely inappropriate. Now more than ever. She was his sister-in-law.
Her blonde hair was up in a sleek chignon and a chain of glittering gold trailed tantalisingly down her naked back, bared in a daring royal blue backless dress. She turned slightly in Cruz’s direction and he had to tense every muscle to stave off the surge of fresh desire when he saw the provocative curves of her high full breasts, barely disguised by the thin draped satin.
She looked almost vulnerable, set apart from the crowd slightly, but he knew that was just a mirage.
He cursed her. And he cursed himself. If he hadn’t been so weak he wouldn’t know how incendiary it felt to have those curves pressed against his body. He wouldn’t remember the way her eyes had turned a stormy dark blue as he’d plundered the sweetness she’d offered up to him that fateful night almost eighteen months ago, in this very house, when she’d worked for him as a housemaid.
He wouldn’t still hear her soft, breathy moans in his dreams, forcing him awake, sweating, with his hand wrapped around himself and every part of him straining for release...aching to know the intimate clasp of her body, milking him into sweet oblivion.
Sweet. That was just it. There was nothing sweet about this woman. He might have thought so at one time—she’d used to blush if he so much as glanced at her—but it had all been an elaborate artifice. Because his younger half-brother, Rio, had told him the truth about what she really was, and she was no innocent.
Her seduction of Cruz had obviously been far more calculated than he’d believed, and when that hadn’t worked she’d diverted her sights onto Rio, his illegitimate half-brother, with whom Cruz had a complicated relationship—to put it mildly.
A chasm had
been forged between the brothers when they were children—when Cruz had been afforded every privilege as the legitimate heir to the De Carrillo fortune, and Rio, who had been born to a housemaid of the family castillo, had been afforded nothing. Not even the De Carrillo name.
But Cruz had never felt that Rio should be punished for their charismatic and far too handsome father’s inability to control his base appetites. So he had done everything in his power after their father had died some ten years previously to make amends—going against their father’s will, which had left Rio nothing, by becoming his guardian, giving him his rightful paternalistic name and paying for him to complete his education.
Then, when he had come of age, Cruz had given him a fair share of his inheritance and a job—first in the De Carrillo bank in Madrid, and now in London, much to the conservative board’s displeasure.
At the age of twenty-one Rio had become one of Europe’s newest millionaires, the centre of feverish media attention with his dark good looks and mysterious past. And he had lapped it up, displaying an appetite for the kind of playboy lifestyle Cruz had never indulged in, quickly marrying one of the world’s top supermodels in a lavish wedding that had gone on for days—only for it to end in tragedy nearly a year later, when she’d died in an accident shortly after giving birth to twin boys.
And yet, much as Rio’s full-throttle existence had unnerved Cruz, could he begrudge him that after being denied his heritage?
Cruz’s conscience pricked. By giving Rio his due inheritance and his rightful name perhaps he’d made his brother a target for gold-diggers? Rio’s first wife had certainly revelled in her husband’s luxurious lifestyle, and it would appear as if nothing had changed with his second wife.
As if sensing his intense regard, his sister-in-law turned now and saw him. Her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. Cruz’s anger spiked. She could still turn it on. Even now. When he knew her real capabilities.
She faced him in that provocative dress and her luscious body filled his vision and made his blood thrum with need. He hated her for it. She moved towards him almost hesitantly, the slippery satin material moving sinuously around her long legs.
He called on every atom of control he had and schooled his body not to respond to her proximity even as her tantalising scent tickled his nostrils, threatening to weaken him all over again. It was all at once innocent, yet seductive. As if he needed reminding that she presented one face to the world while hiding another, far more mercenary one.
‘Trinity.’ His voice sounded unbearably curt to his ears, and he tried to ignore the striking light blue eyes. To ignore how lush her mouth was, adding a distinctly sensual edge to her pale blonde innocence.
An innocence that was skin-deep.
‘Cruz...it’s nice to see you again.’
Her voice was husky, reminding him vividly of how it had sounded in his ear that night. ‘Please...’
His dry tone disguised his banked rage. ‘You’ve come up in the world since we last met.’
She swallowed, the long, delicate column of her pale throat moving. ‘Wh-what do you mean?’
Cruz’s jaw tightened at the faux innocence. ‘I’m talking about your rapid ascent from the position of nanny to wife and stepmother to my nephews.’
That brought back the unwelcome reminder that he’d only been informed about the low-key wedding in a text from Rio.
I have you to thank for sending this beautiful woman into my life. I hope you’ll be very happy for us, brother.
The news had precipitated shock, and something much darker into Cruz’s gut. And yet he hadn’t had any reason at that point not to believe it was a good idea—in spite of his own previous experience with Trinity, which he’d blamed himself for. Rio had been a widower, and he and Trinity had obviously forged a bond based on caring for his nephews. Cruz had believed that she was a million light years away from Rio’s glamorous hedonistic first wife. Then.
The fact that he’d had dreams for weeks afterwards, of being held back and forced to watch a faceless blonde woman making love to countless men, was something that made him burn inwardly with shame even now.
Trinity looked pale. Hesitant. ‘I was looking for you, actually. Could we have a private word?’
Cruz crushed the unwelcome memory and arched a brow. ‘A private word?’
He flicked a glance at the crowd behind her and then looked back to her, wondering what the hell she was up to. Surely she wouldn’t have the gall to try and seduce him under the same roof she had before, with her husband just feet away?
‘We’re private enough here. No one is listening.’
She flushed and then glanced behind her and back, clearly reluctant. ‘Perhaps this isn’t the best time or place...’
So he’d been right. Disgust settled in his belly. ‘Spit it out, Trinity. Unless it’s not talking you’re interested in.’
She blanched, and that delicate flush disappeared. Once her ability to display emotions had intrigued him. Now it incensed him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know very well what I mean. You tried to seduce me in this very house, and when it didn’t work you transferred your attentions to my brother. He obviously proved to be more susceptible to your wiles.’
She shook her head and frowned, a visibly trembling hand coming up to her chest as if to contain shock, disbelief. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about...’
Disgust filled Cruz that she could stand here and so blatantly lie while her enormous rock of an engagement ring glinted at him mockingly. All he could see was her and her treachery. But he had to crush the recriminations that rose up inside him—it was too late for them now.
Rio had revealed to Cruz on his return to the UK a few days before that he was on the verge of bankruptcy—his huge inheritance all but wiped out. And Trinity De Carrillo’s name was all over nearly every receipt and docket that had led his brother further and further into the mire. The extent of how badly Cruz had misread her was galling.
An insidious thought occurred to him and it made his blood boil. ‘Your innocent act is past its sell-by date. I might not have realised what you were up to—more fool me—but I know now. Rio has told me how you’ve single-handedly run through almost every cent he has to his name in a bid to satisfy your greedy nature. Now you’re realising his fortune isn’t a bottomless pit, perhaps you’re looking for a way out, or even a new benefactor?’
Before she could respond he continued in a low, bitter voice.
‘I underestimated your capacity to play the long game, Trinity. You lulled Rio into a false sense of trust by manipulating his biggest vulnerability—his sons. I’m very well aware of how my actions pushed you in the direction of my brother, and that is not something I will ever forgive myself for. Needless to say if he requires financial help he will receive it, but your days of bankrupting him are over. If you’re hoping to bargain your way out of this predicament then think again. You’ll get no sympathy from me.’
Trinity was so white now Cruz fancied he could see the blood vessels under her skin. A part of him wished she would break out of character and get angry with him for confronting her with who she really was.
Her hand dropped back to her side and she shook her head. ‘You have it all wrong.’
‘That’s the best you can come up with?’ he sneered. ‘I have it all wrong? If I “have it all wrong” then, please, tell me what you want to discuss.’
Cruz could see the pulse at the base of her neck beating hectically. His own pulse-rate doubled.
‘I wanted to talk to you about Rio...about his behaviour. It’s been growing more and more erratic... I’m worried about the boys.’
Cruz let out a short, incredulous laugh. ‘Worried about the boys? You’re really trying to play the concerned stepmother card in a bid to deflect attention from the fact that
you’re more concerned about your lavish lifestyle coming to an end?’
Bitterness filled Cruz. He knew better than most how the biological bond of a parent and child didn’t guarantee love and security. Far from it.
‘You’re not even related to them—you’ve just used them as pawns to manipulate your way into my brother’s bed and get a ring on your finger.’
Trinity took a step back, her eyes wide with feigned shock. He had to hand it to her. She was a good actress.
Almost as if she was talking to herself now, she said, ‘I should have known he’d protect himself somehow...of course you’d believe him over me.’
A sliver of unease pierced Cruz’s anger but he pushed it aside. ‘I’ve known Rio all of his twenty-five years. I think it’s safe to say I’d trust my own flesh and blood over a conniving gold-digger any day of the week.’
Heated colour came back into Trinity’s cheeks. She looked at him, big blue eyes beseeching him with commendable authenticity.
‘I’m not a gold-digger. You don’t understand. Everything you’re saying is all wrong—my marriage with Rio is not what you—’
‘There you are, darling. I’ve been looking for you. Charlotte Lacey wants to talk to you about next week’s charity function.’
Cruz blanched. He hadn’t even noticed Rio joining them. He’d been consumed with the woman in front of him, whose arm was now being taken firmly in her husband’s hand. Rio’s dark brown eyes met Cruz’s over Trinity’s head. They were hard. Trinity had gone even paler, if that was possible.
‘If you don’t mind, brother, I need to steal my wife away.’
Cruz could see it in Rio’s eyes then—a familiar resentment. And shame and anger. Futility choked him. There was nothing he could do. He knew Rio would already be despising the fact that he’d allowed Cruz to see him brought so low at this woman’s greedy hands.
He watched as they walked back into the crowd, and it wasn’t long before they left for the evening—without saying goodbye. Rio might have shown Cruz a chink of vulnerability by revealing his financial problems, but if anything that only demonstrated how much Trinity had got to him—because he’d never before allowed his brother to see a moment’s weakness. Cruz’s sense that his determination to see Rio treated fairly had been futile rose up again—he had never truly bridged the gap between them.
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